Identifying and definitional attributes

Metadata item type:

Data Set Specification

METeOR identifier:

355779

Registration status:

Community Services (retired), Superseded 01/05/2008

DSS type:

National Minimum Data Set (NMDS)

Scope:

The Child Protection and Support Services National Minimum Data Set (CPSS NMDS) is designed to capture information on all children and young people involved in the child protection systems throughout Australia.

There are three collections within the CPSS NMDS, all of which are unit record data. The first is the child protection specific data, which includes contacts, notifications, substantiations and services provided. The second is data on children who are on care and protection orders. The third is data on children in out-of-home care.

Out-of-home care data collection

All children or young people who were in out-of-home care at 1 July of the collection year should be included. The child's history in out-of-home care should be included, provided that there is a break of no more than 2 months between placements. All children who were placed in out-of-home care during the collection period should also be included.

An episode is the period of time that a child is in an out-of-home care placement organised by the child protection authority (or their delegate) and/or where the child is being case managed by the authority, and the placement was made for child protection reasons. The child may or may not be on an order.

The concept of an episode or placement is crucial to the collection of information about children in out-of-home care. It provides information about the flows into and out of out-of-home care, and it also provides for the calculation of length of time a child spends in out-of-home care. It is also essential to determine the number of different placements and carers that a child has throughout their time spent in out-of-home care.

Collection and usage attributes

Statistical unit:

Unit record data.

Guide for use:

In this collection, only placements where the State makes a financial payment are counted. This includes placements with relatives other than parents, foster care, other home-based care, residential care and independent living. It does not include placements made in disability services, psychiatric services, juvenile justice facilities, SAAP services or overnight child care services.

It includes all children in both legal and voluntary placements, i.e. children who are on a legal order and children who are not on a legal order.

An episode/placement is always defined by an entry date and an exit date. Each placement the child has is counted. This includes when a child moves from one type of care to another e.g. foster care to residential care, and within types of care e.g. from one relative to another relative.

This data item is applicable only for children who have been on guardianship/custody orders for more than 12 months where the jurisdiction is in loco parentis. If a child is on another type of order or on a guardianship/custody order for less than 12 months, this item should be left blank.

If a child has more than one review during the financial year, the date should be that of the first review during that year.

This data item is applicable only for children on guardianship/custody orders where the jurisdiction is in loco parentis. If a child is on another type of order, this item should be left blank.

A case plan is a written plan of action to be taken to provide the care and support required to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child or young person. The plan will generally include: allocation of parental responsibility; living arrangements; contact between the child or young person with his/her parents; and types of services to be provided.

This item is applicable only to children who were admitted to a guardianship/custody order during the year. The date should be recorded when the case plan has been developed and signed by the relevant senior officer.

This item should be completed each time a child is placed on a guardianship/custody order.

In the Child Protection NMDS, this data element is collected a minimum of three times:

the postcode where the child was living at the time of the notification;

the numeric descriptor for a postal delivery area aligned with locality, suburb or place and defined by Australia Post for the residential address of the child immediately prior to entering out-of-home care for the first time; and

the numeric descriptor for a postal delivery area, aligned with locality, suburb or place and defined by Australia Post for the specific address of the out-of-home care placement.

This data element is implemented three times in the Out-of-home care NMDS. It is collected for the following three items:

a code that uniquely identifies a client within a state or territory’s child protection system (unique client identification number);

the unique identification number of a child who is the sibling of (or who has a significant attachment with) the subject child and who was living in the same home as the child. This includes biological, adopted, foster, step or half-brother or sisters (client sibling/significant other identification number); and

a code that uniquely identifies a caseworker within a state or territory’s child protection system (unique caseworker identification number).

The unique client identifier should be assigned by the state or territory community services department when the child first comes in contact with the department. The child should retain the same unique identifier across time. This data element should be recorded for each child for each contact, care and protection order and out-of-home care episode.

Any sibling of the child subject to the contact should be identified. This code should be used in conjunction with ‘Unique client identification number’ to ensure consistency of identification numbers.

Each caseworker is to be assigned a unique ID by the community services department that will be retained by the caseworker and will remain unique to the caseworker through time. Within each state and territory, each caseworker should be identified by a code using consistent format. The identifier should be assigned by the state or territory community services department when the caseworker is first employed in this role. The caseworker should retain the same unique identifier across time.

An end date is recorded for each separate out-of-home care episode of the client.

An end date is recorded when:

the child is moved from one placement to another placement; it is part of the case plan for the child to formally leave the out-of-home care system; or

the child is no longer a client of the community services department. This includes clients who turn 18 years and children who are no longer are in need of care.An unapproved break greater than 7 days (such as the child absconds) is counted as an exit.

The date is recorded when it is part of an agreed case plan for the child to no longer reside in the placement.

Where the child has absconded and does not return to the placement, the date is where the department deems that the placement has ceased.

If the child does not exit this placement during the year, a data of 11111111 is used to indicate this.

If the date is unknown, the date 01011900 is provided.

This metadata item is used to determine the length of time in out-of-home care and the number of different carers.

This date is to be entered each time a child starts a placement. This may be the child's first placement or a change of placement.

This metadata item is used to determine the length of time in specific out-of-home placements, out-of-home care as a whole and also the number of different carers a child has.

Entered care is defined as when a child physically moves into a placement and this is supported by the child protection service. Alternatively, if the child is already living in the place of residence, it is when the child protection authority deems it to be an out-of-home care placement.